Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht
by XoXxaidenXoX
Summary: This is Xenosaga Episode I. What I did was add a character of mine, Topaz, into the quest. Friends of mine have said it was good, so I decided to put it up here. It's going to be updated often, so be sure to check back! Read and review, please!
1. Last Mission

**Chapter 1: **Last Mission

_"What is the girl's name?" Asked a slender young boy with silver hair._

_"According to the records, she is URTV unit number 670. Otherwise known as Peridot." Answered an orange haired man carrying a barely conscious boy with jet-black hair._

_"Right... Peridot? Hang on a few more minutes. We just need to get your friends all settled in. We're going to take you with us as well.", The silver hair boy spoke to the blonde girl slouching up against the wall._

_"N...no. Don't... bother... I prob... ably won't... make it anyway...", the girl known as Peridot murmured in between slow and steady breaths._

_"Don't... say that... You're gonna... come with us, and you're gonna live...", replied an exhausted boy with crimson hued hair._

_"Yes. Just hang on. We are going to bring you with us.", said the silver haired male to the just as exhausted Peridot._

_"Look... they're go...ing to be... here any minute... Getting me... involved will only slow you... down. Just go... I-", she was stopped in mid-sentence, everything around her going black._

_The last thing she heard was the crimson haired boy desperately trying to yell, "Dot!", as loud as he could._

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BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

"Uh...! What...?", a nearly asleep blonde asked as she was awoken by the beeping.

She sat up on her bed, rubbing her tired eyes, as she waited for a few seconds to let the blood go to her head. Afterwards, she walked over to her computer area to answer whomever was calling her.

"Ah. Good morning, Topaz. I see you finally decided to answer.", said a man with dark brown skin.

"Heh. Sorry... So, whatcha need Helmer?", Topaz replied, trying to overcome the sleepy urges she still had.

"Well, based on your reply, I take it you haven't heard the news?", The man known as Helmer asked.

"Hm...? Uh, no... What happened, answered Topaz, her embarassment from her small lack of knowledge showing a little. She was normally ahead of what was going on around her.

With a small chuckle, Helmer explained. "Don't worry. That's okay. It's just... a Federation cruiser, the Woglinde, gave out a distress signal sometime last night. I have to say though, that it's probably been destroyed by now. Most of the other Federation soldiers and officers are tied up at the moment so I was wondering, since I trust you, if you could go check it out for me?"

"The Woglinde...? You mean the ship that was sent out with the research divisions from Vector? Huh... Um, sure. I can go take a look for you.", Topaz said as she accepted, what she didn't know at the time, her last mission.


	2. Investigations

**Chapter 2:** Investigations

After receiving her mission, Topaz made her way to the AGWS hangar where her mech was kept. When she got to the hangar, she activated the blackbox recorder on her AGWS so that she could chronicle her findings. With that out of the way, Topaz boarded her mech and led it to the exit making it easier to head into space. From there, she would figure out what happened to the cruiser and look for survivors, if there were any. She had a feeling she knew the cause, but she desperately hoped she was wrong.

Nearly half an hour after departing from her home at the Federation Base on Fifth Jerusalem, Topaz was nearly to the last recorded coordinates of the Federation Cruiser Woglinde. She still had a small ways to go, however.

"Hm... I wonder if it went down as a result of engine failure...? Oh wait, that can't be right. The other soldiers reported that it was torn in half... What could have been able to cause a ship like that to be destroyed in that way? Unless... No. I don't wanna think about it. I'll just try and think of something else.", After letting out a sigh, she tried to think of something else to take her mind off of her fears.

_That dream... why do I keep having it? It's been such a long time, I should have forgotten by now! Oh... this many years and I still haven't forgotten you... I know it'd be wrong, but I wish I could... You probably don't even remember me anymore, anyway... Oh well. I'll just have to keep trying. I'll keep believing. Feh. What am I saying! I'm gettin' all sappy again... Ugh... this isn't helping, any!_

After working to clear her mind of thoughts, Topaz could make out tiny bits of what appeared to be pieces of metal scattered about in front of her, floating adrift in the airless space. Pieces of the ship, she thought. As she advanced further, her thoughts had been confirmed. She saw two large halves of the ship close to one another. Topaz had seen many wreckages in her line of work, but never something like this...

"Damn...! This is bad, really bad... Much worse than I thought it would be. Torn right into two clean halves! Incredible!", she exclaimed, gulping. Now it's kinda tough to say it was anything other than the gnosis... "Huh...", she said as she piloted forward to further explore the wreckage.

With a good amount of investigation, Topaz knew now that it almost **had** to have been the gnosis. This worried her, but she had to keep exploring the ship's remains and narrarating her trip with the blackbox recording device.

"... Yep. Pretty bad, huh? I really think it's the gnosis. I mean, what else coulda done this! Definately not people, nor engine failure. Whatever... Well, that oughta be - Huh?",She was interrupted again in mid-sentence. Topaz turned towards the panal.

On her radar, it showed signs of... something... coming at her AGWS at an alarming rate.


	3. The Beginning

**Chapter 3:** The Beginning

Topaz turned to see what was coming after her, and had her worst fears confirmed - it was a gnosis. Luckily, she had just enough time to move out of its way before it collided with the AGWS unit. _Ugh! Why couldn't I have been wrong! _Instinctively, she fired two shots of electro beams from her mech in an effort to slow the gnosis down in an attempt get away, but it was all in vain. The shots missed and the gnosis contiued charging at her. Letting her fear get the best of her, she sped off into the middle of nowhere, praying that the gnosis might give up and leave.

The chase went on for only fifteen minutes or so, but for Topaz, it seemed like hours. Whenever it got close to her, she fired off more electro beams, resulting in more failed attempts to fend the gnosis off. _Nothing's working... What the hell am I gonna do! I gotta think of something, though... I refuse to die at the hands of a damn gnosis!_ She turned around to try to go back to the wreckage, either losing the gnosis among the junk or getting attacked by more. She knew her odds of survival were pretty low, no matter what she decided. To her mixture of surprise and relief, her radar began to pick up signs of a ship off far in the distance. Topaz wasn't sure if she should go there and beg for help or go there to warn the passengers, but she kept flying in the direction that the ship was located.

On the ship that Topaz's radar picked up, the passengers' emotions varied from curiosity, relief, to anger. The captain, Matthews, was having a conversation with the ship's new passengers. In the span of a few minutes, they had already picked up three new guests. Shion Uzuki and Allen Ridgeley, who were both scientists at Vector, along with KOS-MOS, a battle android built by Vector. After everybody had been introduced, Matthews was praising chaos, an enigmatic, silver haired boy.

Shion was about to scold KOS-MOS for disobeying her during an important incident, when the ship picked up two objects coming towards the craft.

As her AGWS unit approched the ship by another mile or two, Topaz opened up a channel on the Undus Mundus Network, or the UMN, to tell the ship to get out of there.

"Hey! You people in the ship! Unless you wanna get killed by a friggin' gnosis, you better get the heck outta here!", she yelled.

"What the hell! A gnosis! You've gotta be kidding! ...You are kidding, right?", Matthews asked nervously.

"Why would I joke about somethin' like that! Look, I'm comin' up on your ship. You better start movin' if you value your lives!", Topaz was growing irritated. _Why aren't they moving! Do they **want** to die...?_

The crew of the ship, The Elsa, were so engrossed in the conversation, they didn't even bother to look out the windows of the ship.


	4. Introductions

**Chapter 4: **Introductions

The AGWS unit was coming up to the Elsa, when it was slammed into the ship by the gnosis. Fortunately for Topaz, her mech was built with strong armor and was able to have just enough power to keep going... for a few minutes. She had no choice. She was going to have to board this ship if she wanted to live, which she did. Topaz felt weak for needing to ask for help, but before she could ask the Captain to board, his voice was heard first.

"Gah! Just get on the ship! Fast! We're opening the catapult deck, get in! Now!", he yelled. He was a little unhappy about adding another person to his already crowded ship, but chaos insisted he instruct Topaz to board.

Trying not to show her excitement and relief, she guided her drastically slowed AGWS to the catapult deck. "Uh... right! I'm comin'!".

After she was aboard the ship a couple moments later, she told Captain Matthews that they could close the deck. Once it was closed, she ran blindly through the craft until she reached the bridge. She figured most ships were designed the same and the bridge would be near the front, like most were. There, she saw seven faces looking at her. She was about to tell them off for staring when the blonde haired navigator announced that the gnosis had dissappeared from the radar.

"What the hell? Where'd it go!", Topaz asked frantically. To her knowledge, gnosis couldn't just dissappear. Matthews and Hammer, the navigator, simply shrugged. They had no idea either. Matthews decided that the best thing to do was introduce himself to this young girl, dressed in the outfit of a Federation soldier.

"Ah... I'm Captain Matthews. I oughta think we've spoken before? Heh...", was his meager introduction as he put out his hand as a greeting gesture. He felt strange introducing himself to this 'little girl', whom apparently outran and tried to fight back a gnosis on her own.

With a slight giggle Topaz introduced herself to the Captain by taking his hand and shaking it confidently. "Yeah. We've chatted before. Good to meetcha, I'm Topaz.".

Afterwards, she was introduced to all the other members, chaos peaking her curiosity. _Now why does he look familiar...? _She couldn't quite put her finger on where she'd seen him before, if she even had... As she shook hands with everyone, Topaz was careful to conceal her left palm. She didn't want anyone to see what was there. She also noticed that chaos seemed to be thinking the same thing as her with the familiarity. She tried to completely disregard it.

"Um... Yeah... Sorry about all of that... I honestly didn't think there'd be anyone around.", she apologized.

Everyone was chatting happily on the bridge, they had no idea that they weren't out of the woods just yet.


	5. It's Not Over Yet, People!

**Chapter 5: **It's Not Over Yet, People!

The happy little conversation continued for at least an hour. In that time, Topaz had gotten well acquainted with each of the passengers along with the crew members.

Then, out of nowhere, something had landed on the window of the Elsa. The gnosis apparently wanted to have a little more fun with the group before leaving. As it began it's short descent into the ship, Commander Cherenkov took action.

"Son of a bitch!" He screamed, shooting at the gnosis with his pistol. As with the the shots from Topaz's AGWS, it was all in vain.

In a flash, the gnosis picked up Cherenkov by the neck and began suffocating him, while at the same time turning his body completely white. Everyone else was in shock and terror, but Matthews instructed chaos to do something. With a nod, chaos went up to the gnosis, reassuring a nervous Topaz and Shion that it was alright, and put his hand up to it. The gnosis just stopped in its tracks. chaos then lightly touched the creature with his right hand and it began to dissappear. Topaz couldn't believe her eyes, and from the looks of it, neither could Shion. _What the...! How did he do that!_

"Commander! Are you alright!", asked Shion to the man lying on the floor.

"Huh? Uh, yeah... Thank you, chaos.", responded an obviously still traumatized Commander Cherenkov.

"How did you do that!" Topaz and Shion exclaimed at the same time to a hardly phased chaos.

"Incredible!" Topaz added.

chaos turned to them both and simply replied, "It's just something I can do." Awestruck, Topaz and Shion just kept quiet... well, Shion anyway.

"Dude! That was sweet! Heh. I wish I could do that!" Topaz exclaimed happily.

chaos merely gave a short laugh then looked at Topaz with a quizzical look on his face. He was obviously expecting her to say something else. Clearing her throat in an effort to contain her childish excitement, she began what she needed to say.

"Uh...anyway, I'm sorry to intrude your ship like this! Um, I just need to stay long enough to fix up my AGWS unit. After that, I'll be on my way. That alright with ya'll?", she asked to Matthews and chaos. Topaz noticed that, for some reason, they didn't look too happy about her saying that. _Huh? What's wrong with them? Do they not want me to be here that long, or do they not want me to leave? Oh well. Regardless, I need to start fixing up my unit. It's gonna take awhile, considering how it's busted to hell for the most part... Whatever..._

Ignoring the looks she was getting from the crew, she stated that she was going to head to the hangar to start her work. Afterwards, the Commander arranged a deal with Captain Matthews for a trip to Senir.

"Alright then, I'll show Shion and the others to their rooms.", remarked a cheery chaos. Everyone then went their seperate ways for the time being.

Topaz arrived at her destination and stared up at her towering mech. _Wow. I really do have lots of work ahead of me... _She removed something shaped like a box from the compartment towards the bottom of the machine. As she held it in her hands, she closed her eyes and, focusing as hard as she could, began to transmit electrical energy into the tiny box from her hands. After a few moments, the blonde opened her eyes and the electrical energy flow ceased. _There. Now I'll have some power for the long trip back home. It's the repairing that's gonna take some time. I guess I'll have postpone my search for you even more... _


	6. Discoveries

**Chapter 6: **Discoveries

Topaz was interupted from her thoughts by the sound of footsteps behind her. Whirling around to face whomever was there, she then saw Hammer, the navigator from before, staring up at her AGWS with a look of sheer amazment on his face. Topaz wondered what it was that he found so amazing about her busted-up mech.

"Um... what's wrong, Hammer? It's just an AGWS, I'm sure you've seen one... right?". She asked him, concerned.

"Amazing! This is a VX-4000! How in the world did you get the money to buy this! It's one of the most expensive models on the market!". He exclaimed, still awestruck.

Topaz responded, "What? Buy this...? ...Oh yeah! I forgot it was mass produced! Hehe. Duh! Silly me!"

"What do you mean 'you forgot it was mass produced'? Hasn't it always been that way, he asked Topaz.

"Uh... Um... You probably won't believe me, but I was the person who originally built this... It was given to Vector so they could mass produce it after I showed it off to one of my buddies, who was so impressed that he showed it to Vector Industries and they payed us cash to begin mass producing it as their own.", she informed Hammer.

For another hour or so, she spent her time repairing the mech and having a nice chat with Hammer. She learned that he was the one who built the other AGWS unit in the area, that was apparently piloted by chaos. They were joined later by Tony, the pilot of the Elsa, whom was informed about the situation with Topaz's mech. _Is it really so amazing that an original AGWS unit was built by a woman? Oh... I know what it is. They don't need to know that, though. It's more fun to watch them gaze in amazement, anyway! _They also told her she could stay in Cabin number two, which was closest to the restaurant, with Shion.

After telling them that she needed to rest, she left the hangar and began to make her way to the cabin. On her way there, she ran into chaos, who seemed to be wandering around for no apparent reason. She didn't know why, but she felt nervous about being face to face with him.

"H-hey chaos! What's u-up?", she asked him while trying to make sure that he wouldn't see her nervousness. It didn't seem to work, though, as he had a look of general concern on his face.

"Topaz? You look nervous. Is something bothering you?". He asked her, still having the face that he had when he first saw her. She just knew she'd seen him before. She vaguely remembered the voice, too. _Ugh... I know I've met this guy before! I just can't remember where... but I need to get away from him, I just get nervous when I see his face... I feel like he sees right through me... _

Without thinking, she put up her left hand to quickly say good-bye. She then froze, realizing what she had done. She quickly pulled her hand behind her back and weakly told him good-bye, praying that he didn't see her left palm. Like everything else she tried to hide from him, it didn't work. He saw what was printed on her palm. Three numbers, a six, a seven, and a zero. By the time he was able to process what he saw, Topaz was walking at an unusually fast pace down the hallway. Now he knew for sure what he had been wondering.Topaz on the other hand, merely thought that someone had learned the secret that she spent so long trying to hide.

As she walked, Topaz's mind was clouded with thoughts. _He saw it, I know he did. And the way he looked at it... he knows. How could he, though? For all he **should **know, I just got it tatooed on for military reasons... Hopefully, I'm just hallucinating and that sleep will cure all of this. _As she entered the cabin, she saw what she didn't want to see, someone sitting at the table. To her relief though, it was only Shion, engrossed in her work on KOS-MOS' data. _At least it's only Shion, she doesn't know about any of this. I don't think chaos told her anything, so I should be fine. Ya know... I wish you could be here, too. Even though I've met all of them, I still feel like they're all strangers... _

After exchanging a quick 'hello' with Shion, Topaz got into her bed and tried drifting into sleep.


	7. Confrontation

**Chapter 7: **Confrontation

"C'mon Everybody! Let's eat!" Shion announced as everyone took their seats around the restauraunt area.

After all the guys announced how hungry they were, everyone began to devour the curry that Shion had prepared. From her seat at the bar, Topaz continued to shoot a glance every now and then at chaos to see if he was watching her. To her relief, he wasn't, he was talking with Shion and the others. _I really hope he doesn't tell anybody... Well, I guess the sleep didn't do me any good... I seriously need to stop thinking about this!_ She tried to clear her thoughts by focusing on how delicious the rice and curry in front of her was, while watching Allen's poor attempts at getting Shion's attention. _Heh. Poor Allen. I find it funny that Shion never notices him. He should learn to speak up!_

Once everyone finished their meal, Topaz accompanied Shion and Allen with the chore of washing the dishes. The two researchers had a conversation about what they should do next with KOS-MOS. Shion wanted to keep KOS-MOS nearby, but Allen wanted to turn her over to the Vector Second Division. Topaz questioned the two about why they were in space onboard a cargo ship, and was shocked to learn that they were survivors of the Woglinde incident. Afterwards, Allen began to whine about having to stay longer since they needed to contact Second Division and ask for instructions. When Shion and Topaz gave him strange looks as if to ask, "What're you talking about?", he decided to fill them in.

Allen explained, "I got a little suspicious, so I checked this ship's registry. Did you know that these guys are with the Kukai Foundation? That place is bad news. I heard a rumor that it's just crawling with mutants."

"Hey, that's kind of a racist comment," replied Shion.

"Uh... Shion? Mutants aren't a race, ya know..." Remarked Topaz with a short laugh. Ignoring the annoyed look she got from Shion, she continued. "So, what's so wrong about the Kukai Foundation? I heard that the director is a really nice guy!"

"Yeah. He's really to be commended. What was his name... Umm..." Shion said while trying to think.

The voice of chaos was heard when he entered the kitchen as he said, "Gaignun Kukai."

After offering to help with the dishes, the four spent the next few minutes on their task. After taking notice of the untouched tray on the counter, Shion decided that she was going to need to search for the Commander. Before Shion left to begin her search, chaos inquired about where KOS-MOS was. After learning that she was being tuned in her service module, he turned to leave the room, but looked at Topaz as if to say, "Follow me.". Topaz ended up following him to KOS-MOS' service room where the questioning would begin.

"Topaz. I had a feeling about it the moment I saw you on the ship, but after seeing your palm, now I know. You're one of the last remaining URTVs, aren't you? Please, don't lie to me. I promise I won't tell anyone, since it seems you don't want people to know about it," chaos told her.

Topaz weakly replied, "H-huh? What are you t-talkin' about? A URTV? What's t-that?" After getting a look of dissapointment from chaos, she decided that she would tell the truth. "Okay. Fine. I've got no idea how you know but, yes, I am one of the... Wait! Whatdaya mean 'last remaining'? You mean, you know other URTVs? ...Do you... know anybody named Nigredo or..." Tears began to slowly flood her eyes as she spoke the name, "Rubedo...?"

Putting his hand on her shoulder in an effort to comfort her, chaos somberly answered, "I'm sorry, but I don't know anyone by those names. I didn't mean for it come out that way and get your hopes up..."

Topaz waved him off and told him it was all right, that she was fine. As she left the room to make her way back to her cabin, she tried to cover up any evidence of her sadness by drying her eyes on her sleeve. Along the way, she saw the Commander walking along the corridors looking fairly despondent, plus he looked to be in a bad mood, so she simply chose to leave him alone.


	8. Things Begin To Heat Up

**Chapter 8:** Things Begin To Heat Up

Topaz went back to her cabin to see if she could calm down, while trying not to think about Rubedo, without success. _I can't decide what's worse, being without you or still not knowing where you are... Well, I'll find you someday... I promise. ...Heh. Yeah right. Who am I kidding? Ugh... _After waiting a few more minutes for her sadness to subside, she decided to go and see what was going on at the bridge. During her short walk there, she ran into Shion.

"Hey Shion! What's goin' on?" Topaz asked as cheerfully as she could.

"Hi Topaz. Captain Matthews wanted me to go check out the catapult deck, would you like to come?" Shion answered.

"Um, okay," accepted Topaz.

The two girls proceeded to the catapult deck, then investigated the hatch by pressing the button on the console in front of it, and were surprised when everything checked out normal. Shion then contacted Matthews to give him the news, receiving praise from the Captain in return. The girls went back to the bridge to find Matthews and Tony confirming various information to the female U.M.N employee such as: the organization, vessel class, number, and name, along with the captain. After transmitting the flight plan and being figured out when it came to excess cargo mass, they decided to send a surcharge to the Kukai Foundation.

"I had a feeling they'd notice," said Hammer.

Matthews replied, "Well, we did pick up some extra junk."

After Hammer commented that they always go over the limit, Shion added that they could have billed Vector for the charge. After Matthews and Hammer provided their input to that comment, Tony nodded and the Elsa was sent into hyperspace to begin its trip to Second Miltia. Shion and Topaz then left the bridge to go take care of other business, Shion to speak with the director about KOS-MOS, and Topaz to do some extra tuning on her AGWS.

Topaz was working on her mech for some time, when she realized that it was almost completely fixed up. She didn't know why, but she felt sad after seeing this. _Why do I feel sad? It's not like I've been here that long, so why do I not wanna leave them? I'm gonna have to leave them soon anyway, so why is that such a big deal now...? Well... the longer I stay here, the harder it's going to be when I have to leave, so I should get this done and leave soon. _A short time later, she heard her name and Shion's being called over the intercom to get over to the bridge, so she abandoned her task and did as she was instructed.

"What's up, Captain?" Topaz inquired.

Matthews answered, "Just take a look at this." He pulled up a screen which showed a very small ship getting chased and attacked by several Drone ships.

After Shion commented that she had no idea that tiny ships, like the one on the screen, could enter hyperspace, it passed under the Elsa and the Drones passed around the Elsa. Shortly after Shion failed at answering Matthews' questions on the Drones and small ship, chaos announced that the small ship was emitting a distress signal. When Shion asked why the Elsa wasn't going to help the ship, Matthews replied that he had enough trouble dealing with Topaz and the others. _Jeez. This guy's pretty rude. I'd do somethin' about it, but my AGWS isn't quite ready yet... _Before Topaz could voice her opinions, the crew was sent into an uproar.

"Damn! We're in their line of fire!" Tony announced.

Matthews angrily answered, "What? Get out of the way!" Tony moved the Elsa to side and the Captain nervously stated, "If we hit the column walls it's over!" Right after, ironicly, the Elsa's right side was jammed into the column walls. This caused Hammer and Allen to start praying for someone to save them, and Topaz to lose her temper.

"Those bastards! That ain't right! They oughta pay for that!" Growled a frighteningly irritated Topaz.

Matthews stated with anger, "Damn it! You try to be polite and they just walk all over you!"

"What's the plan, Capt'n? We gonna join the party? Replied an excited Tony.

"Yeah! C'mon! Let's give 'em hell! Nobody does that to **your** ship, right?!" Topaz cheered with an evil grin.

Matthews was yelling at Topaz and Tony for wanting to get involved with this skirmish, when chaos announced that the outer hull in sector four was partially damaged by a blast from the enemy drones. This caused the Captain to get seriously angry, so he instructed Tony to speed up the Elsa and take it into battle against the Drone ships.

Allen whimpered, "Wha...? Wait a second! You're gonna take a ship like this into battle in hyperspace?! You've gotta be kidding!"

"You better believe it! Don't worry about it. With the Elsa's Logic Drive and my immaculate piloting skills, there's nothin' we can't handle! Let's do iiittt!" Tony yelled with excitement as he fired both of the Elsa's lasers at the enemy ships, destroying a few of them.

After some of the drones were destroyed, the little ship's pilots decided to take out the others by circling around the column walls and emitting flames to incinerate the remaining ships. Tony was amazed by the pilot's skill and decided to try it for himself, causing Topaz to nearly fall off the railing she was leaning against, and almost everbody else to start feeling extremely dizzy. Right after the first ships were destroyed, reinforcements arrived to take out the small ship with everything they had. The ally ship tried to dodge the blasts as best as it could, but it was hit in the left booster and was sent plunging into the column walls, looking like it would explode any minute. All of a sudden, Shion pressed the button for the grappling claw to catch the ship, resulting in amazing sucess.

Once Tony praised Shion for her excellent catch, Matthews told the occupants of the other ship to hurry up to the bridge once the hatch closed. The catapult deck was beginning to close when, out of nowhere, it stopped. Matthews was losing his temper about the electrical problems, causing Topaz to cringe. _I had a feeling there was something wrong with the deck... Why can't I ever be wrong?! _ chaos instructed the occupants to put on their spacesuits and make it up to the ship on their own, but the male occupant stated that they both weren't human and they should be fine. Afterwards, Hammer picked up an intruder alert coming from the catapult deck.

"Surrender and maintain cruising speed. If you do not comply, we will attack. Repeat. Surrender and maintain cruising speed. If you do not comply, we will attack. We guarantee you will not be harmed if you follow out instructions," stated an Auto-Tech that had just landed on the outside of a window at the bridge.

Topaz narrowed her eyes, "Oh come on... That's a buncha crap..."

Matthews answered the Auto-Tech, "An Auto-Tech. My ass... Who are you kidding? We're screwed either way. Tony! Full throttle! Use the ship to take him out!"

"You got it!" Tony exclaimed, still filled with excitement.

The pilot moved the large ship towards the column walls, creating flames to destroy the drone ship. Once the Auto-Tech hit the catapult, the deck began to close. Hammer was pleased that the shock closed the catapult, but Allen was still whining about how this whole thing was insane. A few moments later, chaos announced that the drones were taking over the rear hangar by calling in terminal units using transfer waves.

"We'll just have to take 'em on! Prepare for hand to hand combat! Seal the internal barrier doors!" Matthews stated.


	9. Time To Fight

**Chapter 9: **Time To Fight

"Roger!" Hammer responded.

"I'll go take care of the corridor!" chaos said.

"I'm coming, too!" Shion added.

"I'm comin' with ya!" Topaz told the two.

chaos didn't want either of the girls to go with him, but Shion instructed that they had KOS-MOS to help them. Shion, on the other hand, was much more concerned about Topaz coming along, so she reminded Shion about the occupation she had. _Heh. This'll be nothin' more than practice for me! They think I can't handle this, huh? Guess I'll just have to show 'em what I can do! _Shion and chaos reluctantly allowed Topaz to help, then Allen was told by Shion to find the Commander and keep the cabin safe. The party of chaos, KOS-MOS, Shion, and Topaz were sent off.

"I'm counting on all of you!" Matthews said as the team left the bridge.

The group first headed to the cabin where the girls stayed so Shion could get her weapon, a strange item that looked like a giant, mechanical hand. When Topaz questioned Shion as to why she fought with something like that, she just told Topaz that it was a long story and she didn't have time to tell it. The four then proceeded to floor B2 of the Elsa where KOS-MOS stated that confronting the auto techs in the next area over would waste a good amount of time. Topaz then pressed a button on the console in front of them, causing the floor in the other area to become electrified.

"C'mon! We gotta get to the hangar," stated Topaz.

Meanwhile, the occupants of the small ship, a realian girl with pink hair named MOMO was having a conversation with a blonde haired cyborg named Ziggy on the catapult deck.

"First, we need to get to the bridge to explain the situation to the one who's in charge. Will you be able to make it?" Asked Ziggy to MOMO.

"Tee Hee... I'm built much tougher than I look! Don't you remember what I said earlier?" Responded MOMO with a slight smile.

After the short discussion, the two occupants made their way into the ship on their way to the bridge.

A bit later, Topaz and her group were making their way to their destination, when they ran into Ziggy and MOMO.

"Are any of you the ones in charge of this ship?" Ziggy asked to the Shion's party.

"Huh?" Oh, ah, no. We're just passengers," replied Shion, who was then cut off by Topaz continuing the sentence for her.

"What's more important, though, is are you two the only ones who were on that ship?" Topaz asked the cyborg.

Ziggy confirmed Topaz's questioned and introduced himself as Ziggurat 8, only to correct himself after seeing MOMO's face after saying so, then telling the group to call him Ziggy. He then introduced them to MOMO, who politely thanked Topaz and the others. Shion questioned Ziggy on the identity of the attackers. He explained that they were Auto-Techs that the U-TIC Organization used; unmanned fighter craft. He also stated that, unless the group took out the mother ship, combat units would continue to be transfered in endlessly.

Topaz tried to confirm, "So...if we don't do somethin' 'bout this, those bastards are gonna overrun the ship...?"

"Yes. I'm truly sorry for getting all of you involved in all of this," Ziggy apologized.

"Hm? Oh, no, no. Please don't let it bother you. It's not your fault, Ziggy! Anyway, we've got to do something about that Mother Ship!" Shion said.

Ziggy answered, "I agree with you. We might not be able to do much, but we'll help, too. It's my responsiblity to take care of this."

"We? As in...her, too?!" Topaz asked in shock, as she looked at MOMO.

"Yes. She may not look like it but she's even more useful than me, believe it or not," answered Ziggy.

MOMO shyly responded to this compliment by saying, "Hehe. I don't know about that...but I'll do my very best," with a smile.

"...Huh. Alright then! Let's hurry up and send that Mother Ship packing! " Exclaimed Topaz to the other members of the newly formed party of six.

The group continued on through the ship to their destination, the hangar, and ran into Commander Cherenkov, who told them that the enemy mother ship was in the hangar. He also told them to stay on their guard at all times. Upon reaching the hangar, the group came face-to-face with the enemy mother ship, Domo Carrier.

"Alright, time to take this thing apart! Everybody ready?" Topaz asked her teammates.

"Okay. KOS-MOS, let's go!" Shion answered, looking at the blue-haired android.

"Yes, Shion. Combat systems are functioning properly," KOS-MOS replied.

Ziggy answered, "Okay. Let's go!"

chaos said, "Okay! Careful everyone!"

"Yes! I'm gonna do my best for everyone!" MOMO cheerily answered.

The team ran down the stairs, three on each side, and advanced on the enemy. MOMO stayed a little distance from Domo Carrier to keep everyone going, while the others attacked up front. Topaz performed a swift slash on Domo by transforming the gun on her thigh into a blade, then reverting the weapon to its original form to fire off a laser beam at the enemy. Right after, however, the mech fired a beam at her and she would have been hit, if chaos hadn't pulled her out of the mother ship's line of fire at the very last second. chaos ran up to Domo and moved his arm in a counter-clockwise motion, then sent several fire-balls at the enemy after yelling, "Lunar Seal!".

KOS-MOS jumped in right after and delivered a two quick shots with her blaster, then said, "R-CANNON," and fired an immense, colorful blast at the enemy. MOMO, along with Shion, saw KOS-MOS receive a powerful blow afterward, so they called upon a power, which healed the android of all wounds. _Huh...? What...was that? I've never seen something like that before... _Topaz thought in awe. However, while watching this, she didn't catch the enemy aiming at her with one of its cannons. By the time she did see the Auto-Tech, it was too late, it fired the cannon and it scored a direct hit on Topaz, sending her right into the wall.

She thought she still had some strength left so she got up, grabbed her laser gun, and started to walk back to the fight. In mid-step, she felt all her power leaving her.

"No... This... Can't be..." She she murmured as she fell to the floor, blacking out.

"Topaz!" MOMO called, she then chanted, "Mystic powers, grant your miracles", and a sparkly, glowing dome appeared over her unconscious comrade.

As Topaz regained consciousness, she felt much of her strength returning to her. _Seriously, what IS that power? It's amazing! _She thought as she retrieved her weapon and got up off the floor. Thanking her realian friend, she returned to the battle by firing off a couple more laser beams at Domo Carrier.

After taking charge of a small amount of healing duty, Shion decided it was her turn to attack. She got a moderately safe distance from the enemy, and sent a fire ball at the huge mech. Readjusting her hand-like weapon, she fired off another blast, then followed up by taking a glowing spell and turning it into something that allowed her to aim at the Auto-Tech and fire of a strong beam after yelling, "Spell Ray!" MOMO attacked by calling upon the same strange power she used earlier, but this time, it took the form of several stars converging on Domo. Shion was nearly hit by the Auto-Tech, but KOS-MOS pulled her out of harm's way and assisted Ziggy in delivering two powerful punches to the enemy.

The enemy was greatly weakened, but Topaz could tell that everybody else was as well, she was feeling quite weak herself. _This is bad... Shion and MOMO can't keep using those healing powers on us forever. We've gotta do something, but what...? ...Oh! I could... No, I can't let them know that yet... If I don't do something, though, we're all gonna die... _Topaz thought to herself as she continued to fight with her comrades using as much strength as her small body would allow her to expend. _What the heck am I thinking?! This is no time to be worried about stuff like that! I'll...just use a small amount of power. Yeah. That'll work._

"Alright! Everyone! Outta the way!" Topaz yelled to the others as waved everyone to the sides, "I'm gonna finish this, once and for all! Now, stay back!"

Reaching for the power within her, Topaz called forth a small amount of energy to her palms. _Okay... Here goes nothing! _Topaz thought to herself as she let her palms be engulfed with electricity. After gathering enough power, she held it above her head and hurled the electric sphere at her opponent. After receiving the blow, Domo Carrier began to start smoking like crazy, then suddenly exploded, disappearing completely. Being as exhausted as she was, Topaz fell flat on her bottom to the floor and breathed a very deep sigh. The party was victorious.


	10. A Bit Of Peace And Quiet

**Chapter 10: **A Bit Of Peace And Quiet

After a brief celebration over their victory, the party of Topaz, Shion, KOS-MOS, chaos, Ziggy, and MOMO decided to head back to the bridge and check in on Matthews and the rest of the Elsa crew. As they approached the bridge, they could hear some shouting coming from the other side of the door.

"Er... We're back, you guys..." Topaz weakly said as she came in with the others.

When chaos saw Tony and Hammer look like they were nearly about to kill each other, he asked, "Hmm? What's going on...?"

"Huh? Nothin'. It's nothin'. Good work, all of ya," Matthews said to the group. He then took notice of MOMO and Ziggy, then asked, "Who're these two? The ones that were on the ship?"

chaos answered, "Yes. She's MOMO and he's Ziggy. It would seem that they're both with the Federation government."

After Ziggy and MOMO took turns thanking Matthews and personally introducing themselves, chaos told the Captain that the two were being held by the U-TIC Organization. Matthews got quite angry and murmured to himself about how he thought that he would never have to hear their name again. Hammer asked the Captain about what U-TIC was, only to be told that it wasn't anything he need concern himself with, and stop wasting time to plot their course. After being teased by Tony, Hammer went back to his seat and gave harsh orders to Allen to clean up the stuff from the panels. Allen meekly told Hammer to not take his anger out on him and got to work.

A brief time after the 'skirmish' on the bridge, the rather large group headed over to the Elsa diner to get some food. Everybody was, for the most part, in little cliques. Matthews and Hammer ate together, and Shion sat with a very depressed Allen, while Topaz ate with chaos and Tony. MOMO and Ziggy kept to themselves, unless spoken to first, of course. KOS-MOS was serving everybody, since she didn't need to eat.

Topaz had a brief conversation with Tony and chaos over the previous turn of events. Tony told Ziggy that he had some 'pretty sweet moves... for an old man'. Ziggy leaned back so Tony could give credit to whom deserved it. Upon learning that MOMO was the one responsible for such impressive piloting skills, a shocked Tony made a remark about 'kids these days'. _No way! That's amazing! This kid just might be my competition for best piloting ability. I'm gonna have to challenge her to a race sometime, to see who's the best! _Topaz thought to herself with a grin.

Tony left shortly afterwards, apparently after receiving a body blow to his pride. Shion then sat with the Cyborg and the Realian to chat with MOMO about her piloting, when she noticed the insignia on the little girl's uniform. Topaz caught this, as well, warranting a discussion between the three.

"Hey, MOMO. That insignia on your uniform..." Shion said.

"Um... yes?" The Realian asked.

Topaz suddenly blurted out, "Oh! Are you from the Mizrahi Lab?" This received a brief, nearly unaudible gasp from MOMO.

MOMO responded, "Mm-Hm. I'm a 100 - I, I'm an Observational Realian."

"Oh, that's alright. If you're worried about government secrets, KOS-MOS is one, too. So, you're a 100 series Observational Realian from the Mizrahi Lab, right?" Shion asked, but before MOMO could answer, Topaz added in one more question.

"Say... you wouldn't happen to be a Hilbert-equipped model, would ya?" Topaz asked the Realian, who then gave a brief nod to confirm both the questions from both Shion and Topaz.

Shion stated, "KOS-MOS is also equipped with it. The Hilbert Effect. Ours is a Vector original, though."

MOMO asked, with sudden curiosity, "Oh! You're with Vector Industries?"

"That's right! See Allen over there? He is, too," Shion replied. Allen simply mumbled in response.

"By the way, where are the two of you headed? We could probably get you there for a small fee if it isn't all that far out of the way... Right, Captain?" chaos asked.

"Of course. I mean, we **are** in the transport business, after all," responded Matthews.

MOMO asked Matthews, "Transport...? Oh! Then could you take us to Second Milt... I mean, would you take us to the Second Miltian star system, please?"

"You guys are headed for Second Miltia, too?" Topaz asked MOMO.

"What do you mean by that?" Ziggy asked Topaz.

Topaz responded, "Huh? Oh, it's just a coincidence, I guess. That's where Shion and Allen are headed, 'cuz some new equipment for KOS-MOS is located there."

chaos answered, "Well, that's lucky for you guys. It'll actually end up costing less if everybody's going the same way."

Shion hesitantly said, "Well... I **guess** that's right... What about you, Topaz? I didn't know you were headed for Second Miltia, too."

"Er... I'm not going to Second Milita... I'm heading Fifth Jerusalem. I, I'll go fix up my AGWS soon, I promise! I should think I've been a burden for long enough," answered Topaz weakly.

"Hey, don't worry about it, Topaz. You can stay here as long as you want; we'll take you back to Fifth Jerusalem. That is, if you can pay us once we get there!" Matthews said, with a small chuckle.

"Really?! So I don't gotta go now? That's awesome! Thanks, man!" Topaz shouted with a grin.

Once the discussion about who was going where ended, Matthews decided that the Elsa needed to stop at a nearby dock colony to get some repairs done. In the meantime, Shion and Topaz were to take Ziggy and MOMO on a tour of the ship.


	11. Tour Guides

**Chapter 11 - **Tour Guides

Shion and Topaz had officially become tour guides for the time being. Topaz wasn't sure why, but she felt very excited at the thought of this. It was the first time she'd been asked to show people around since she left Fifth Jerusalem. The moment she thought about it, she began to feel extremely homesick. _Hmm... I wonder what everyone's doing right now... I really miss 'em..._

"So... Ziggy? MOMO? Are you both ready to begin your personal tour of the Elsa?" Topaz asked with a semi-sad tone and a forced smile plastered on her small face.

"Um... Topaz? Are you doing okay? ...Anyway, what do you all say we check out the Catapult first? That way, we can start our trip with the place you were at first," suggested Shion to the new passengers.

Ziggy answered, after briefly talking it over with MOMO. "Sure. That sounds like a good idea to me. Should we head over now?"

"Of course! Let's get moving, everybody! To the Catapult deck!" Topaz exclaimed. She found that acting happy helped her mood.

The small group of four made their way through the large ship to reach the Catapult. There, Shion and Topaz gave Ziggy and MOMO a brief description of their current location. Topaz, along with Ziggy and MOMO, learned that Shion had somehow gained experience operating a crane from the ship she had previously been aboard. They headed back until they reached the B2 Lounge, where Ziggy decided to put up his maintenance bed after a suggestion from Shion. Afterwards, they entered the Hangar 1, where the A.G.W.S. units were kept.

"This, my friends, is where we keep our A.G.W.S. units. For safekeeping and maintenance purposes. See that silvery, purple one over there? That's mine," Topaz said with a proud grin on her face as she pointed to the A.G.W.S..

Shion added, "That's right. Mine is the pink one over there," as she pointed as well.

"Your A.G.W.S. looks to be in good shape, Shion, but Topaz... Yours doesn't look very good. What happened?" Ziggy asked.

"Ah... Well... It's a long story. I'll tell you about it later, if you wanna know that bad," Topaz responded.

"They're both very pretty, but... whose unit is that?" MOMO asked as she pointed to the remaining mech.

Shion answered, "That's the Elsa's A.G.W.S.. I think that chaos is the pilot. At least, that's what Topaz said, right?"

Topaz said, "You're right about that! Hammer told me that he was the one who built it. He said that he built it using spare parts that he found scattered throughout a bunch of different battlefields! It's amazing! Anyway, let's continue on, shall we?"

The group passed through Hangar 1 to the room where KOS-MOS' maintenance bed was kept, along with KOS-MOS herself. Here, a brief conversation took place about KOS-MOS sleeping and the dreams she might have. Afterwards, the four continued back through Hangar 1 to reach Hangar 2. At the end of the description, Shion mumbled something about how Matthews wouldn't say a thing about what parts made up the accelerator room. Shortly after, Shion and Topaz led MOMO and Ziggy to the two cabins onboard the ship.

"This is Cabin 1," explained Shion, "it's where the people of this ship stay."

Topaz added, "It's also where Allen and Commander Cherenkov stay."

"It looks like it gets very crowded here; there are lots of magazines scattered about. I'll have to clean it sometime!" MOMO said with a giggle.

The group proceeded to the second room--Cabin 2. Here, another short conversation took place.

"This would be Cabin 2, where Shion and I stay," Topaz instructed.

"You'll be staying here, too, MOMO," Shion added, "I'm sure the three of us will be good roommates!"

MOMO answered, "Yes! I'm sure we will be, too!"

At the end of her sentence, MOMO added the same innocent giggle from before. Topaz was starting to notice that she did this often. She didn't know why, but it was starting to annoy her. _Ugh. What's her deal? She better not do that again... I'm seriously starting to get tired of it. I've never been able to stand people like that. _It didn't seem to bother anyone else, so she decided to let it go. Topaz then instructed Ziggy and MOMO to follow her and Shion to their next destination.

In the kitchen, the four teammates saw KOS-MOS washing the dishes at the sink. Topaz was shocked that so much time had already passed since they left the restaurant. MOMO exclaimed that she would help, too, then she did the one thing that Topaz despised the most. She did the same innocent giggle as both times before. Topaz was beginning to think that it sounded false, almost forced. _WHY WON'T SHE STOP?! The others think it's cute... I don't see how, though! It's obvious that it's forced! Damn, this girl's starting to irritate me! _

After shaking off her anger, Topaz followed Shion's instructions and headed to the Elsa's bridge. Shion then gave a brief lecture over what the various consoles around the bridge did. Ziggy and MOMO gave their input every now and then, and Topaz was truly astounded how much the horribly giggly Realian knew about the anatomy of ships. They had been on this tour for a while, so Shion decided that it was time to call the tour to an end. Ziggy returned to his room to set up his maintenance chair, and Shion went to go help KOS-MOS with the dishes, which left Topaz stuck with MOMO for a while.

"So, Topaz, how long have you been on this ship? You seem to know about the crewmembers and the ship really well!" MOMO asked Topaz, obviously trying to make small talk in an effort to break the silence.

Content with the Realian's lack of a giggle, Topaz answered, "I just recently boarded this ship, myself. The crewmembers and I talk a lot, that's all. I learned all the stuff I did from them. Of course, I've built a few ships, myself, so that may have helped a bit..."

"Really? I didn't know that! That's amazing! Heheh-" MOMO was saying, as she was cut off mid-sentence by Topaz interrupting.

"Stop. Now. I'm so damn sick and tired of that giggle! Just... STOP!" Topaz yelled at the now shaking Realian. Just as she was about to reach over and smack MOMO, the door slid open and Shion walked in with a perplexed look on her face.

Shion asked,"...Huh? What's going on here? Topaz, what're you-"

Topaz interrupted, "Nothin'. I was just... gettin' up to go to sleep. Goodnight," as she headed over to her bed, completely ignoring the tears that one could clearly see welling up in MOMO's eyes, to try and fall asleep. She hadn't slept in a while, so she was able to defeat her anger and fall asleep after a few long minutes of trying.


	12. The Dock Colony

**Chapter 12 - **The Dock Colony

_"Rubedo!" Topaz cried as she saw the figure of a red-haired boy a few feet in front of her._

_Rubedo answered, "Peridot? Is it really you?"_

_"Yes! It's really me! I've finally found you!" Topaz said happily after receiving a grin from Rubedo._

_While she was running to her long-lost friend's open arms, the figure of a girl appeared out of nowhere and blocked her path. Topaz stopped abruptly, and addressed the girl in her way._

_"MOMO! Get the hell outta my way, dammit! I wanna see Rubedo!" Topaz screamed._

_MOMO responded, "Do you think I care what you want? Of course not. You'll never find him. No matter how hard you try."_

_She ended her answer with the giggle again. This time, however, the giggle turned into something more. Something more evil, more maniacal. It echoed through Topaz's ears over, and over, and over... MOMO then turned around to face Rubedo and disappeared with him. The moment Topaz saw this, she collapsed, tears flooding down her tiny face._

Topaz awoke with quite a start, and began breathing heavy. The dream she just experienced had definitely taken a toll on her emotional status. She sat up, looked over to her left, and saw MOMO sleeping in the bunk bed across from her. Topaz cringed the moment she saw the Realian, so she decided that she would go get a drink to calm herself down. She got out of her bed, and walked quietly to the exit of the room in an effort to not wake Shion who was sleeping above her, or MOMO.

"Rubedo..." Topaz mumbled as the door into the female cabin closed behind her, "I will find you... I promise."

She was walking to the area where the vending machines were, when she heard what sounded like two men talking. For a moment, she thought it was Tony and Hammer, but she then realized that one of the voices was Commander Cherenkov. She was feeling nosy, so she walked over to the area where she heard the voices coming from. She caught the last bit of the conversation while she approached, something about Cherenkov being told to return to Headquarters to be dealt with at a later time. Once she finally saw the Commander, the screen disappeared before she could catch a glimpse of who he was talking to.

"Huh? Who were you talking to just now?" Topaz asked Commander Cherenkov.

The Commander answered, "N - nobody you need to know about. Shouldn't you be asleep or something?"

"I... couldn't sleep. I kinda... had a nightmare. A bad one... I came out to get a drink, when I heard you talking to somebody," Topaz explained to the now seemingly irritated Commander.

Cherenkov responded, "I see. I'm sorry, but it's none of your business who I was talking with. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

The Commander walked past Topaz as he headed back to the male cabin. _What? None of my business? If it was someone from the Federation, it sure as hell is my business! What is up with that dude? _She was very curious as to who Cherenkov was speaking with, but she realized that she was not going to get any information about the subject, no matter how hard she tried. Topaz went to the vending machines and bought herself a small cup of orange juice--her favorite drink. As she drank, a feeling of extreme loneliness overtook her. She still felt alone and frightened over the dream she had only a few minutes ago.

About half-an-hour later, Captain Matthews emerged from the male cabin, along with the rest of the Elsa crew. Topaz and the crew exchanged greetings with one another, then headed to the bridge, where they sent an announcement to wake up the other passengers and inform everyone that they were already beginning to enter the dock colony. Shion entered the bridge a little while after the ship docked, and asked where Topaz and the Commander were. Hammer then advised Shion to check outside for Cherenkov and Topaz, since the Commander said something about finding a charter flight, and Topaz wanted to purchase some items for the trip. That triggered a nervous remark from Matthews--military personnel were not liked at the colony.

Shion then went with chaos to retrieve Ziggy to help look for Topaz and Cherenkov. Meanwhile, Topaz was in the Dock Colony's items and equipment shop, looking for goods, while ignoring the disgusted looks she got from civilians. _Why are all these people looking at me like that? They don't even know me... Ugh, I hate all of 'em already... Bastards... _She walked up to the counter to pay for the items she had selected, when some mean looking men entered the shop and began to eye her. Topaz decided to leave the items where they were, and exited the shop, only to be unknowingly followed by the men. She started to feel as if she was being followed, so she broke into a run, causing the men behind her to give chase.

"Leave me alone, or I'll make you regret it!" Topaz screamed at her pursuers as they stormed after her.

She ran until she found a place to turn right and went that way. Topaz then found herself in an alleyway, where she saw Cherenkov standing around, looking somewhat troubled himself. She yelled at him to run without even thinking that he did not have anywhere to run, either. She reached him, and the street punks caught up to the two of them. Topaz prepared to defend herself, when the commander told her to lower her fists; soldiers were not supposed to harm civilians under any circumstance.

"But...! Commander...! If we don't do something, they'll -" Topaz was cut off as she received a strong punch in the stomach from one of the street punks.

Topaz fell to the ground and attempted to get up, when she was kicked in the face by another punk; Cherenkov received a hit, as well. She yelled to the commander, only to be struck hard again.

Cherenkov got up and yelled, "Topaz! Close your eyes! Now!"

Immediately afterwards, an insignia that looked something like the letter "X" appeared on the commander's forehead. Before Topaz could question him, a bright light, which temporarily blinded her, emanated from Cherenkov. When she regained her vision, she got up and looked around. Every single one of the punks had been thrown a few feet away and were bleeding, critically injured, and unconscious.

"...Commander...? D - did you do all this? H - how?" Topaz barely managed to get out.

Cherenkov uneasily responded, "Hmm? I - I didn't do anything. Anyway, our attackers are immobilized, so let's head back to the Elsa before they wake up and try to harm us again."

"Uh... Um... Okay, "Topaz said as she followed the commander and began the return trip to the Elsa.

Once they returned, Cherenkov and Topaz ran into MOMO. She didn't bother to question them, instead, she took them to Ziggy's maintenance room to treat them using the medical kit she had stored there. Topaz was not thrilled with the idea, nor was the commander. However, both had very different reasons for their discontentment over the situation. MOMO chose to treat Topaz first using nanosurgery, which involved a needle, so Topaz was mortified; needles were a major phobia of hers.

"Topaz? It's okay. It'll only hurt for a second! You don't have to be scared," said MOMO to try and calm down her comrade.

Topaz nervously muttered, "Um... Do you have to use a needle? I really don't like -", then she received the shot, causing her to utter a quiet grunt of discomfort.

"Okay! Sorry about that, but you're done! You should begin to heal in a few minutes," MOMO gently told a shaky Topaz.

"Oh, I see. Thanks," Topaz said, and received a smile from the little Realian.

MOMO proceeded to treat the Commander, but he absolutely refused to let her help him at all. Shortly afterwards, Shion's group entered the room. Shion asked Cherenkov what happened, so he told her that he and Topaz got cornered by some street punks, but they left once the men began fighting amongst themselves. He gave Topaz a stern look when he saw her attempt to say otherwise, then he said he was fine. MOMO interrupted to say that he was not fine at all, and he wouldn't let her treat his injuries.

Cherenkov apologized and said that it was because he didn't like nanosurgery. Ziggy interrupted and told MOMO that he needed some help to check his body for problems. Shion then began to try and treat the Commander, but shortly after, he made a remark to MOMO and Ziggy, then left the room.

"Hmm... I wonder if the Commander's truly all right..." Shion muttered.

Topaz said, "Me too. I hope he is, though... Now that I think about it, he's been acting kinda weird ever since he was attacked by that Gnosis awhile back..."

Topaz and the others then made their way to the bridge and told Captain Matthews that they were ready to head out again. Once the Elsa disembarked from the Dock Colony, Shion decided that it was finally time to call it a day. The minute Topaz returned to the cabin, and lay down on her bed, she fell into a deep sleep; she was utterly exhausted from the day she had.


	13. The Belly Of The Beast

**Disclaimer: **Me? Own Xenosaga? Nope!

**Thanks to my reviewers:** chibi-sama love, Fullmetal Outcast, U.R.T.V 670! -can't believe she never thanked you guys yet- By the way, I'm really, really sorry for the long wait!

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**Chapter 13 - **The Belly Of The Beast

While Topaz was sleeping soundly in her bed, the Elsa received a heavy hit during its trip through hyperspace, causing Topaz to slam against the wall, then roll over the edge of her bed, and crash into MOMO on the ground, causing both girls a slight bit of pain. Topaz rose and checked to make sure MOMO was all right, then suggested that they head for the bridge. Shortly after the two girls arrived, Shion made her way there, as well. KOS-MOS then explained the situation at hand to everyone.

"Shion, MOMO, why are your hands glowing blue...? What's going on here?!" Topaz asked, now feeling very uneasy.

Shion looked out the window of the ship and exclaimed,"Those are... gnosis! They're everywhere! ...KOS-MOS! Ultra Wide-Range Hilbert Effect!"

The android did as she was instructed and used the powered up Hilbert Effect. Topaz was amazed, as was MOMO; even amplified systems could only reach a range of several hundred kilometers, at best, but this was far more. Afterwards, a distortion in the gravity field developed, and the Elsa was pulled into one of the giant gnosis, seperating Topaz and the others from the Elsa crew. Little did the team know that it was going to be a long, and painful, journey to find the missing Elsa...

"Huh...? What happened...?" Topaz asked as she slowly sat up, once the others began asking the same question.

MOMO answered,"Hold on... I'm getting this feeling... Now, I'm sure of it. We're... inside of a gnosis!"

"WHAT?! You've gotta be kidding me! That's not possible, is it?!" Topaz asked the Realian.

When Shion asked if they had been eaten, chaos responded that it may not be all that far from the truth. When the subject of the location of Captain Matthews and the rest of the Elsa crew came up, KOS-MOS said that she was picking up the Elsa's signal, along with something else near it. She said that it had a waveform similar to the Zohar that was stored on the Woglinde. The android also explained that the Elsa was around 10 kilometers away. The team began the quest to find the ship.

"So... This is what it's like inside a gnosis... I've wondered about it, but this isn't exactly how I planned to figure it out," Topaz mumbled grumpily, as she proceeded along one of the many paths inside the immense creature, followed by the others.

Ziggy said,"At least 10 kilometers isn't all that far. We should be able to make it within a few hours or so; be thankful."

Topaz grunted,"Humph. A few hours? That's still too long! I don't like this one bit..."

"I wouldn't suggest complaining, Topaz. It'll only make this trip worse for you," Ziggy sternly responded.

The group continued trying to figure out which path would take them closer to the Elsa, Topaz getting more ill-tempered with each dead-end the team came across, until they finally reached a new area. Shion pointed out a sign to the group, then she began to wonder if they were really inside of a gnosis. The party became more questionable about their location after they saw that the sign was not the only object present that did not belong with the surrounding environment. Topaz was curious.

"Yenno what's wierd? This area looks more like a city, instead of a gnosis' belly..." Topaz said.

"Yeah... There are cars, signs, and even buildings here. There's something more to this place, I bet," chaos answered.

Shion stated,"I don't know what to make of this place, either... Wha -", as she was interrupted mid-sentence, apparently by a vision she had seen. "That girl... What did she mean,'He'll be gone soon'?" Shion muttered to herself.

MOMO asked,"Are you okay, Shion? You don't look too well," as she gave a look of concern to Shion.

Shion answered that she was fine, and that the party should continue looking around for a path to the next area. Topaz and the others exchanged opinions with one another to pass the time that they spent exploring. After a couple hours had passed, the group had navigated through several areas to reach the center. The vibration patterns on the ground had proven to be extremely useful in guiding the team to the center. Once there, Shion took notice of the shape of the building towering ahead.

"What is... that?" Shion asked as she pointed to the building.

chaos responded,"I'm not sure, but it almost looks like a building of some sort."

"It could be a device... A strange one, at that," Topaz added.

Shion asked Topaz,"What do you mean by that?"

"I dunno... It's just that... It looks man-made, I guess," responded Topaz.

Ziggy provided,"So, that could be some ship or object that was swallowed like us, then turned into that?"

"We're not going to end up like that, too, are we?" MOMO asked uneasily.

After MOMO was reassured that everyone was going to be all right and free of the Gnosis' stomache, Shion questioned KOS-MOS about the Elsa's signal. The android had lost the signal of the ship due to the unstable magnetic and gravitational fields near the center. She also stated that the Elsa's last known coordinates were around 300 meters below the team's current locale. This helped to regain the party's morale that it had lost during the hours of walking around. Everyone continued ahead.

After spending another hour exploring even further into the depths of the Gnosis, Topaz and the others had made their way to the location where the Zohar was kept. After KOS-MOS advised that the party move on, and received a scolding from Shion, she stated that the object in front of everyone had an over 99.9 chance of being the Zohar Emulator stored onboard the Woglinde. Shion was astounded that KOS-MOS was able to confirm that the true Zohar was at another location; she could not remember storing such information in the android's database. Shortly after, Commander Cherenkov emerged from the flight of steps to the left. Topaz was very glad to see that the Commander had survived the trip.

"Commander! ...Are you okay?! C'mon, let's get out of -" Topaz stopped mid-sentence as she saw Cherenkov's body change.

As Shion viewed this, she asked,"Commander... What's wrong with your body...?!"

"...'Get out here', huh? Do you even know what you're talking about? ...You don't honestly believe that you'll survive through something like this, do you...?" The Commander asked as he moved closer to the Zohar Emulator, then continued,"Y...yes, I was the one who was b...behind the dissappearance of the planet Ariadne... The only thing that mattered was recovering the Emulator. Vector and the m...military were only pawns in their deployment. In spite of all that, though..." Cherenkov ended.

As the Commander finished, he then began to see things that Topaz and the others could not, and he started to scream at the invisible entities that were flying everywhere which had chosen Cherenkov as their target. _W-what's happening to him?! What's he seeing that we aren't? Wait... I think I can see them... _Topaz refocused on the current situation and was filled with horror at the sight before her. The Commander was overtaken by one of the ghosts flying around him, then claimed by the remaining phantoms. Each one of the scans KOS-MOS used turned up negative; she was unable to state what the group was seeing. All of a sudden, Cherenkov transformed into the shape of gigantic creature, horrifying the entire party.

"No... This can't be happening... It can't..." Topaz said, full of grief over knowing what was to come.

Ziggy muttered to himself,"It's exactly the same as that day..."

"Wait... I sense something... It's... It's a gnosis!" MOMO exclaimed in fear.

The Gargoyle, Cherenkov's gnosis form, gained two Oudogogue allies, which would make the coming battle more difficult for Topaz and the others. Shion and the others were ready to fight, but Topaz was having difficulties pulling her laser gun out of its holster. _I'm going to have to kill him... Why did this have to happen? ...Cherenkov... I'm sorry... _

"Topaz! Concentrate on the enemy, not your emotions," Ziggy told his shaken comrade.

"Hmm? Oh, right... I'm ready! Let's go everyone!" Topaz responded.

The party decided its attack formation would go as follows: Ziggy and MOMO would attack one Oudogogue, KOS-MOS and Shion would attack the other partner, and Topaz and chaos would go after the Gargoyle. Ziggy attacked using powerful punches and kicks from his mechanical arms and legs, while MOMO chose to stand back and attack with her powerful ethers. KOS-MOS would fire off blasts from her R-CANNON, and Shion would attack with her Shock Blade to inflict heavy damage. Topaz and chaos had the very difficult task of dealing with the Gargoyle alone until the others could finish off the sidekicks. With every hit she dealt, Topaz's heart filled with even more guilt than the moment before, but chaos tried to keep her alert.

"I'm sorry... It's just... I can't bring myself to kill him; I thought of him as my friend," Topaz somberly told chaos.

chaos gently responded,"I know, Topaz, but we have no choice... If we don't defeat him, we'll die instead..." He looked at Topaz softly, then quietly asked, "You want to see Rubedo again, don't you?"

"What...?" Topaz asked with surprise.

chaos then said,"...Keep that in mind, okay? Besides, we need to defeat the Commander to help him; release him from his pain."

With her mind newly filled with the thought of finding Rubedo again, Topaz proceeded to fight against her old friend with every ounce of strength she had. Sometime afterwards, Shion and the others had finally dealt with the underlings, and proceeded to assist Topaz and chaos in defeating the Gargoyle. Within another fifteen minutes, the party dealt the finishing blow to the beast. As she viewed her friend's demise, Topaz's eyes welled with tears, as she wept over what she had just done; she had never even dreamt of killing a friend. _Wha - what have I done? I... I... killed him... my friend... with my own hands... _During the time Topaz was grieving over the loss of her friend, Shion was speaking with Cherenkov through a vision.

Having seen and heard what she did, Shion began to cry, as well. Shion, however, was more open to communication with others than Topaz and was slowly brought back to her senses with the help of MOMO and chaos. Topaz had yet to subside her weeping, thus, chaos knelt down to try and bring the grieving child solace.

"Topaz... Don't cry... okay? You should rest your mind at ease, since you helped free him from the fears welled up inside him," chaos kindly reassured his companion.

Ziggy also attempted to comfort Topaz,"I'm sorry. I... know what it feels like to lose someone important to you," he told her.

"...Thanks... Ziggy. chaos. I'm sorry for getting like that... It's seriously not like me to get that way," Topaz apologized as she summoned the will to stand up.

After chaos and the others managed to help Topaz and Shion compose themselves, KOS-MOS instructed that the spatial location of the party would soon disappear, due to the dissipation of the connection between phenomenon boundaries. Before anyone could make a true comment, the area of the Cathedral Ship faded away, leaving the group somehow floating in space.


	14. The Search Finally Yields Results

**Author's Note: **This story, in time, will be deleted and sent to my newer account. It's a bit of a story on why, but I'm not gonna waste your time, since you've already got this one to read, right? XP**  
**Anyway, when the time comes, which'll be when I've finished Chapter 15, I'll post the link to my other account on my profile. It's gonna be a while, though, so you don't really need to worry for a while.

Thanks to xenolion for reviewing!

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**Chapter 14 - **The Search Finally Yields Results

"Oh! Look over there, everyone! That looks like -" MOMO announced as the party was floating in space.

Topaz hastily interrupted, "Is that... The Elsa?!"

"Hey, I think it is," chaos responded with a hint of excitement in his voice.

As it turned out, Topaz, MOMO, and chaos were correct; the Elsa had arrived right in front of the hovering party. Captain Matthews and Allen both eagerly called out to Shion, and the Vector chief responded to their calls. Once the whole team had safely re-entered the Elsa, Matthews immediately ordered Tony to speed away from the enourmous fleet of gnosis that still remained in the vicinity. The crew had believed that they would be getting away with no major problems, but the gnosis seemed to have other plans for the Elsa, and began to tail the cargo ship. As the Elsa sped away even faster from the gnosis, a large number of laser beams rained down from above and obliterated quite a few of the gnosis following the ship.

The ship that had come to the Elsa's rescue, the Durandal, continued to fire its guns at the gnosis, destroying them in large chains. Topaz and the others were making their way to the bridge, when they heard the shots being fired.

"...Hm. It sounds like the fighting has started," stated a very calm Ziggy as he ran through the corridors of the Elsa.

"Are we gonna be okay with all this fighting going on?" MOMO nervously asked. "There were so many of them..."

"These are gnosis. They destroyed an **entire** Federation Fleet. Honestly, our best option would be to escape, rather than fight against them," Shion answered.

"Aww...but that's just no fun!" Topaz pouted. "I wish I could get out there and fight! ...But I kinda... can't," and added a sigh.

Around the time, Shion and the others arrived at the bridge, another large group of gnosis began chasing after the Elsa. The fact that the Durandal's guns were not slowing down the enemies very much at all caused quite a panic among the crew. Hammer then said that Hatch number 17 was open, and Shion immediately knew that it had to be KOS-MOS on the elevator. Once the android was put on the monitor, the group witnessed an amazing performance put on by KOS-MOS. The android rode the elevator to the roof of the Elsa, and floated to the front roof of the ship.

"Wha-what's she doing all the way up there? Sh-Shion?" Topaz managed to ask Shion with shock in her voice.

"I'm not sure, but I do know that she's supposed to come back when I tell her to!" Shion angrily answered. "Oh, that KOS-MOS... What will I ever do with her..."

KOS-MOS, who was still on the front roof of the Elsa, shut her currently blue eyes and activated her torso weapon to fire an enourmous laser beam at the gnosis, annihilating every single one of the creatures in the area. After witnessing such an event, Topaz and the others were near speechless, when Hammer told the Captain that 'Little Master' had been buzzing the ship for quite some time. Topaz had no idea who this person was, much less did she care, so she spoke with Ziggy, chaos, and MOMO about what had just transpired. She was not paying that much attention the Matthews as he was talking with Little Master, but she caught a small portion of their conversation. She could not figure out why, but the voice she heard through the speaker sounded bone-chillingly familiar to her. _...That voice... I... I... know that voice! But... no, it can't be... That's not possible..._

After having a chat with Little Master, Captain Matthews instructed that everyone was to follow him to the Durandal's bridge and speak with the Captain of the war ship. Upon hearing this, Topaz felt her heart skip a beat in anticipation, but soon convinced herself that it was simply not possible that the voice she heard was the one she kept so close in her mind, and followed along. However, when Matthews and the others got on the elevator to go up to the bridge, Topaz got somewhat sidetracked with a droid on the way there.

"Hello, there! Would you like to purchase a Durandal Souvenir?" The droid asked Topaz as it held up various trinkets to her.

Topaz eagerly responded, "Ooh! Sure! How much are they? Oh, I just love souvenirs! ...Is that a keychain shaped like the ship?! I gotta get that!"

"Excellent choice! That Durandal Keychain will be... one-hundred G," the droid told the overly excited girl, then received the amount asked. "Thank you. Would you like to buy anything else?" He once again held up the remaining knick-knacks.

This little ritual went on for only about another minute or so, since Topaz became unable to carry all the souvenirs she had spent most of her pocket money on. _Sweet! Souvenirs are so cool! When I get to Second Miltia, I'm so gonna let Helmie have this awesome coffee mug! He'll love it for sure! Hmm... Maybe I'll let Shion and the others have a look at this other stuff and pick out what they want. Yeah, that'll work! ...Huh? ...Where'd they all go...? _After bringing herself back to her senses, she hurried up to the elevator, and pushed the button so she could ride it up to the bridge. During the ride, Topaz became fairly irritated at her friends for simply leaving her behind and going on without her, and started yelling from the elevator shaft.

"Hey! You losers just left me! What gives, huh? That's just plain rude, yenno that? I even bought all these presents for you, and -" Topaz was stopped abruptly in mid-sentence as she reached the bridge and lay her eyes on the crimson-haired boy standing merely a few feet in front of her, standing next to Shion, whom he just finished talking to.

As soon as she saw him, Topaz dropped all of the souvenirs she had bought, and merely gaped at the boy. She simply could not believe her eyes, so she rubbed them to see if her vision was deceiving her. But when she opened them again, she could still see the boy standing where he was before, but this time, he had the same reaction she did. Topaz was in so much disbelief that her knees gave out from under her, and she fell to them on the ground as she allowed her emerald eyes to fill with tears. chaos looked over to the red-haired boy and gave him a simple nod, along with a smile, as if he was confirming something.

"R...R...Ru...Rubedo...?" Topaz could barely whisper as she dried her tears on her sleeve.

The boy was just as shocked as Topaz was, but he was able to speak easier, "P...P-Peridot...? I-Is it really you...?"

Everyone else on the bridge, besides chaos, was confused as to what was going on, so they stood silent during the whole event. The boy with crimson-hued hair--Rubedo--could not contain his joy of being face-to-face with the one person that he held close to his heart that he had been wanting to find for years. With something that sounded like a small laugh, he ran to Topaz, who was still on her knees by the elevator, and embraced her. As Rubedo held her, Topaz couldn't control herself--tears began to flood down her face like a river. Wrapped in Rubedo's warm embrace, Topaz felt truly happy for the first time in years, and she returned the hug as she quietly repeated his name with joy.

"Dot... It's been a long time... I've...really missed -" Rubedo attempted to say to Topaz, but stopped speaking as Topaz put a finger to his mouth.

Topaz laughed as she removed her finger from his lips, "That's not like you at all. Oh, no, yer a softy now," she laughed "...I've really missed you, too," she finished with a soft smile.

"Oh, heh. Sorry 'bout that. You're right, that ain't like me. I'm not a softy now, though, believe me," answered Rubedo. "By the way, call me Jr. now," he whispered in Topaz's ear.

Topaz whispered back,"All right. You have to call me Topaz, though," and after receiving a nod from Jr., the two finally stood up and remembered that everyone else was still around.

After Jr. introduced her to Mary and Shelley, Topaz walked back over to the area where her fallen knick-knacks were, and picked them up. She then showed them to Shion and the others, and allowed each of them to pick what they wanted. She was in a very good mood, so she was even able to tolerate MOMO's giggle when she took a Durandal bracelet from her. When Jr. asked Topaz where she'd bought the trinkets, she told him that she got them from the droid on the floor below, causing him scoff at her answer and merely shake his head. Similar talk continued for an hour, then Shion and the others became sleepy.

"Sleepy, huh? Well, it is late, I guess. Mary, Shelley, could you show everyone where their rooms are for me? You know which ones to take 'em to," Jr. instructed, but as he saw Topaz as about to leave, he told her,"Wait, I wanna talk to you a minute first, that okay?"

"Uh... Okay... What's up?" Topaz asked in response, when Jr. motioned for her to follow him onto the elevator with the others.

Jr. and Topaz followed along with Mary, Shelley, and the others for part of the way as they progressed through the Residential Area. While Shelley and Mary went their seperate ways to show the rest of the group where they would be sleeping, Jr. took Topaz to an area more to the back, which contained a long couch that stretched from one end to the other in the aclove where it was located. Jr. walked over to the sofa and allowed Topaz to sit down first, then he sat down beside her. For a while, the two just sat there, not talking or anything, just sitting there. Even though the two had reconnected so well, there was still an air of nervous tension surrounding them now that they were alone.

"So... um... Rubedo -" Topaz shyly began to ask Jr.

He angrily raised his voice at Topaz, "Hey! Didn't I tell you already? My name's Jr. now, not Rubedo!"

"Don't you ever yell at me like that for something so stupid," Topaz answered Jr. with a venomous tone; he'd crossed the line.

Jr. was upset with her response. "Woah, you're not the Dot I remember," he sadly told her.

"Dot...? Dot?!" Topaz exclaimed in disbelief, "You yell at me for getting your name wrong and yet, look at you screw up mine!"

"Hey! You can't yell at me!" Jr. fiercely said, "I'm the captain of this ship, so I could throw you out into space at any time if I wanted to."

Topaz was shocked at Jr.'s ferocity with his threat. "W-what the hell is wrong with you?! You're such a damn hypocrite," she told him with a icy voice.

Jr. was extremely angry with the blonde sitting next to him, so he decided to stand up and say one more thing before he lost his temper, and did something he knew he'd regret, "...You better shut the hell up if you know what's good for you..."

With that final, vicious threat, Jr. turned on his heel and stormed out of the room, leaving Topaz awestruck on the couch. She couldn't believe what had just happened between her and Jr. a few seconds ago. Feeling absolutely disgusted at herself for feeling horrible about what she had said, Topaz decided to stand up and walk to the female cabin where Shion was staying. After exchanging a very brief greeting with Shion, Topaz got into one of the beds, and closed her eyes. The feeling of disgust and guilt stayed with her the entire time she tried to sleep, but she had one last thought before she fell into sleep. _Why did things turn out this way...? What happened to Jr.? He hasn't changed since the day we got separated... How come I've changed since the day we got separated? I have no idea what's going on... I'm so lost... Jr..._


End file.
